The 29th ICTCT workshop took place in Lund, Sweden, on 20-21st October 2016 and offered a multidisciplinary forum for lively discussion among inter­national experts in an open-minded and friendly atmosphere. The workshop mainly dealt with the question how to assess traffic safety. According to the philosophy of ICTCT, the safety assessment should not only rely on accident data but actively utilise other non-accident indicators that reflect the accident risk. Such methods are widely used in in rail and air transport, while acceptance is still low among road safety professionals. 

The Therapeutic Alliance Workshop, organised by the Athens Medical Society, at this year’s conference was aiming to highlight all modern reinforcement tools for patients and enhance their communication with physicians and other health professionals which can contribute decisively to a more secure and effective management of chronic diseases. The 5th Session of the Conference concerned Cognitive Impairments/Dementia: road and traffic safety issues of patients with the active contribution of NTUA. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

The driving behaviour of patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment or Dementia

 The behaviour of pedestrians with mild dementia

The Society of Applied Neuroscience in cooperation with the Medical School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Department of Neurology of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, organised with great success the SAN2016 meeting, which was held in Corfu Island, Greece from 6-9 October 2016. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

The driving simulator as a valid measure of driving behavior

Self-awareness of cognitive and driving abilities in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer’s disease and healthy elderly

Incidental and intentional memory performance in depression and amnestic mild cognitive impairment

A new Report “Investing to prevent road trauma saves lives and pays financial dividends” launched by FIA Foundation on 22nd September 2016 during the iRAP Innovation Workshop hosted by the World Bank in Washington DC, presenting findings to representatives of development banks, philanthropies and road authorities. The new report builds on the last year’s Report: Breaking the Deadlock: A Social Impact Investment Lens on Reducing Costs of Road Trauma and Unlocking Capital for Road Safety and is part of the FIA Foundation’s ‘Financing for Development’ series of policy and research papers.

The International Transport Forum has recently published an evidenced based Research Report titled “Zero Road Deaths and Serious Injuries: Leading a Paradigm Shift to a Safe System“, prepared by the Safe System Implementation Working Group composed by international road safety experts including NTUA Prof. George Yannis. This ITF Safe System Report was presented at a dedicated Road Safety Seminar, held with great success on 3 October 2016 in Paris France. All presentations are now available.  

This Report is relying on experiences in ITF/OECD countries, with practical policy recommendations for the attention of policy makers on the various steps in implementing a safe system approach. A Safe System is based on the premise that road crashes are both predictable and preventable, and that it is possible to move towards zero road deaths and serious injuries. This, however, requires a fundamental rethink of the governance and implementation of road safety policy. 

The 5th Panhellenic Interdisciplinary Conference of Special Psychiatric Hospitals and the 3rd Panhellenic Conference of Holistic Addressing with Severe Mental Disorder took place with great success in Kalamata, from 29th September to 2nd October, 2016. 

NTUA presentation concerned: “Driving ability assessment process of the elderly”

The 27th ARRB Conference took place with great success in Melbourne, Australia from 16th to 18th November 2016. The ARRB Research Conference creates the opportunity for road and transport professionals to share and explore the latest ideas, knowledge and technologies in order to maximize the total economic and social benefit of road infrastructure. The 27th Conference in this series is to explore infrastructure and its associated technologies in the context of the reasons for which the roads exist and the users for whom they exist.

The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) of the European Commission released the Statistical Pocketbook 2016 ‘EU Transport in figures‘. In this Statistical Pocketbook, key road safety Tables are contained, together with several other Tables on transport statistics, providing a complete picture of current trends in transport in Europe. Data on road fatalities for the EU member states and associate countries allow for time series comparisons and country rankings.

On the occasion of the World Day of Alzheimer Disease (21/09/2016), the Department of Mental Disorders / Dementia of the Second Neurological Clinic of the University Hospital “Attikon” organized with great success an informational event on the latest developments in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia diseases. The event includes speeches by professors of the Athens University Medical School and specialized health professionals who answered questions in relation to the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and other topics related dementias.

Dr. Dimosthenis Pavlou made two presentations which concerned two critical questions:

Which are the latest developments about assessing driving behaviour of patients with Alzheimer’s disease?

Can we consider patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment as safe drivers?

The 14th International Athens/Springfield Symposium on Advances in Alzheimer Therapy took place with great success on 9-12 of March 2016, at Athens, Greece. The very latest on Alzheimer therapy were discussed by the very top leaders in the world and it was the very best opportunity to learn and interact in a welcoming scientific environment. Leading scientists discussed new targets and drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and novel approaches to current therapy.

The Highlights of the Congress are available. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

Association between motor ability tasks and driving parameters in healthy, patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD)

Mini Mental State Examination and Montreal Cognitive Assessment: which is the best predictor of Driving Ability?

Self-assessment of driving performance in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD)

Mild Cognitive Impairment: The role of in-vehicle distraction in driving behavior

A paper titled “Which are the effects of driver distraction and brain pathologies on reaction time and accident risk?” authored by Dimosthenis Pavlou, Panagiotis Papantoniou, Eleonora Papadimitriou, Sophia Vardaki, George Yannis, Costas Antoniou, John Golias and Sokratis G. Papageorgiou is now published in Advances in Transportation Studies an international Journal. A driving simulator experiment with 140 participants (out of which 109 were patients) was carried out by an interdisciplinary research team of neurologists, neuropsychologists and transportation engineers. The brain pathologies examined include early Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Mild Cognitive Impairment.  A statistical analysis was carried out by means of mixed generalized linear modelling and the results indicated significant differences between the driving performance of healthy drivers and patients. Patients with cerebral diseases reacted significantly slower at unexpected incidents than the healthy ones and were more likely to be involved in an accident. The mobile phone use had a significant negative effect on both reaction time and accident probability.